Culture

Learn English Magazine For the Love of English

You are here: Home

English Articles

Culture

Culture Articles

Getting rid of it - Culture Article

Details: Parent Category: English Articles; Category: Culture Articles; Written by Margaret Watson

In our garden we have several ways to get rid of our garden and general waste. There are two large bins: one is for rubbish which we can’t get rid of ourselves; small bits of cooked food, although we don’t waste much, and the rest is mostly plastic: All that extra packaging which is considered necessary by manufacturers, but which we used to manage without. You know the kind, it takes special tools just to open a packet of biscuits these days. We bought some new tree loppers, and had to use the old loppers to open the packet that the new loppers came in. It was almost as if someone was playing a cruel trick.

There is another bin for green waste. We use that rarely as most things will compost eventually, even what are thought of as toxic weeds; thistles and dandelions, if I can catch them before they seed in they go. It was full this week as we had a tree hit by such strong winds that three branches came off and needed getting rid of.

It wasn't me - again - Culture Article

Details: Parent Category: English Articles; Category: Culture Articles; Written by Margaret Watson

I haven’t won the lottery – again.

Did you hear the one about the Spanish man who prayed every week that he would win the Spanish lottery ‘El Gordo’? Over time his pleas got more and more urgent, and also louder until it came to the point where he was shouting at God. Then one day he got an answer. A voice from heaven – though in this case it was through the lips of his exasperated wife “At least go half way - buy a ticket.”

The Seed Catalogues - Culture Article

Details: Parent Category: English Articles; Category: Culture Articles; Written by Margaret Watson

In the UK, at this time of year, almost every time the postman drops something through the letter box, he brings a seed catalogue. One even arrived on Christmas Eve and my husband’s reaction was, “Your Christmas present has come early”. My older daughter’s reaction was, “Oh no. She’s going to buy even more seeds!” She then pulled open the salad drawer of our fridge which is crammed so full that it is hard to open, and contains various opened seed packets from previous years.

Keep Calm And ... - Culture Article

Details: Parent Category: English Articles; Category: Culture Articles; Written by Lynne

Keep Calm and Carry On was a propaganda poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of a Nazi invasion of Great Britain. It had only limited distribution with no public display, and thus was little known. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private companies and used as the decorative theme for a range of products, and an amazing number of funny posts shared on social networking sites.

The Poppy - Culture Article

Details: Parent Category: English Articles; Category: Culture Articles; Written by Margaret Watson

Edited by Lynne Hand

Many flowers have important symbolic meanings in Western culture, and the practice of assigning meanings to flowers is known as floriography. For example, red roses are often regarded as a symbol of love, beauty, and passion. Lilies are used in burials as a symbol referring to "resurrection/life". They are also associated with stars or the sun, with the petals blooming or shining.

Red poppies are a symbol of consolation in time of death, they are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in times of war. In the UK in November you will see many people wearing artificial poppies on their clothes, they are also worn in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

When I was growing up I thought I knew all about poppies – in England they were red and in Wales they were very slightly smaller and bright, egg yolk yellow. Since then I‘ve learnt differently of course. They come in almost every shade including sky blue. They appear all over my garden, especially in the vegetable beds where they pop up among the cabbages and leeks, pushing aside the leaves of lettuces and give shade to the strawberries. They seed so profusely of course that I’ll never be able to get rid of them, so I just let them grow and enjoy their fleeting beauty.

Main Menu

icon label